The present invention relates to a tremolo bridge, and, in particular, to a full contact tremolo bridge for use with guitars or other string instruments of similar construction.
Tremolo devices of various configurations have been widely used with stringed instruments for creating vibrato sound effects.
Broadly, a tremolo mechanism provides a means for changing the tension of the strings to create a slight change in the tone produced by each string. Typically, on string instruments such as guitars, a bridge employed in a tremolo device is mounted for enabling the manual pivoting of the bridge about a fixed axis so that the musician can manually vary the tension of the strings to produce a vibrato effect, which is a steady oscillating variation of the pitch about a primary frequency. That is, each string has a primary tension that produces a primary pitch or tone around which the musician can slightly vary the tone to produce the vibrato effect.
In general, tremolo mechanisms of the type described above include a bridge pivotally mounted to the body of the guitar and a lever (tremolo arm) mounted to the bridge to permit the player to pivot the bridge to thereby selectively vary the tension of the guitar strings. The bridge is mounted to the guitar body using a plurality of springs so that the bridge is biased to return to its normal static position upon release of the tremolo arm. As such, upon release of the tremolo arm the bridge the strings are returned to their tensioned, tuned state.
A disadvantage of prior art tremolo devices of the type described above is that the bridges that make up part of these systems are flush with the guitar body over a very small area. As a consequence, the transfer of vibrational energy from the strings to the guitar body is poor. This results in diminished tonal quality as well as poor sustain. Further, in conventional tremolo devices the string is mounted to the bridge by saddles having a central cavity for receiving the string. These saddles are mounted such that only a small portion of their overall surface area is in contact with the bridge or associated structure. As a result, the saddle to bridge, and thus the string to guitar body, transfer of vibrational energy is compromised further reducing tonal quality and sustain characteristics.
Another disadvantage encountered with prior art tremolo devices is that their various parts, including bridge, saddle block, saddles etc. are interconnected in a point to point fashion. These various parts are not collectively integrated or secured, nor do the various parts sit within one another in surface to surface contact. Thus, it is impossible for prior art tremolo devices to vibrate as a unit. Conversely, the various parts of these devices vibrate individually resulting in disjointed vibrational characteristics that further sacrifice tonal quality and sustain.
It is therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved tremolo device that overcomes the disadvantages and shortcoming of the prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tremolo device that has improved vibrational characteristics.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a tremolo device that maximizes tremolo device to guitar body surface contact.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tremolo device that will vibrate as a collective unit.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description or will be learned by practice of the invention.